4 Overview

22.2623GPPMessage service within the 5G System (5GS)Release 17Stage 1TS

4.1 General

Massive Internet of Things (MIoT) is one of key market segments of 5G. The typical IoT device communication is sending and receiving small data which can be delivered just in a message. Today SMS is used as message enabler for some IoT applications. However, SMS has limitation in term of service capabilities (e.g. 140 bytes payload) and performance (e.g. long latency), in addition, the overhead of control plane resource is high. There have been enhancements and optimizations on the 3GPP network capabilities to facilitate IoT applications including device triggering, small data transfer, and Non IP Data Delivery (NIDD) etc.

Nevertheless, the characteristics of MIoT devices including high density connection, flexible mobility, saving power, limited computing capability, bulk of devices, and traffic pattern of short burst of small data will bring various new demands on message communication, e.g. light weight message communication for provision and monitoring, ultra low latency and high reliability message communication for remote control, and extremely high resource efficiency for large scale connections.

The MSGin5G Service is basically designed and optimized for massive IoT device communication including thing-to-thing communication and person-to-thing communication.

4.2 Message communication models

Figure 4.2 a: The MSGin5G Service overview

The MSGin5G Service is a message enabler for applications. An application client (APP1 Client) in UE A utilizes MSGin5G Service to send a message to UE B. This message will be routed to UE B via the 5G system, or this message will be first routed to the application server (APP 1 Server) and then forwarded to UE B. If the terminated UE (UE C) supports SMS but does not support the MSGin5G Service, the message will be translated to SMS by MSGin5G Server. A UE (UE D) that does not support 3GPP message service can connect to the MSGin5G Service via MSGin5G Gateway that facilitates the translation between the MSGin5G Service and non-3GPP message service. The connection between the UE D and the gateway can be via 3GPP access or non 3GPP access (e.g. WLAN).

The message communication models include:

– point-to-point message: message that is originated at a UE and terminated at a UEs.

– application-to-point message: message that is originated at a UE and terminated at an application sever in the network or originated at an application sever in the network and terminated at a UE.

– group message: messages are originated at a UE and terminated at a group of UEs (the members of a group can be located in different geographical areas).

– broadcast message: messages are originated at an application sever in the network or an UE and terminated at all the UEs in a specific service area within a cell or multiple cells.